Paul Burtwistle writes:
Last night I watched an item on Channel 9’s 60 minutes here in Australia which covered Dr Stefan Harrison of Exeter University in the UK and his work studying the Exploradores glacier in Patagonia, Argentina.
The story contained an alarmist view regarding the sudden increase in the rate at which the glacier is receding over the last 10-20 years. The documentary does explain that the glacier has retreated a lot over the last 20,000 years but that the rate of decrease is up to 50 times greater in the last 10-20 years that it was 500 years ago and this is all due to AGW (at 5 mins 26 seconds in to “Wild Patagonia part 2″).
At 5 minutes 40 seconds in to the item Dr Harrison asked about climate skeptics and he goes on to say that they are not worth debating their viewpoint as it’s “like mud wrestling with pigs. Firstly you get covered in mud and secondly, the pig loves it” he then goes on to say he won’t debate skeptics because geographers don’t debate with people who think the world is flat and biologists don’t debate with people who think evolution isn’t happening or that the world is only 6000 years old.
You can view the whole article here (2 x 8 minute items) – http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/stories/8834229/wild-patagonia-the-glaciers-that-hold-a-dire-warning-for-earths-future .
The two articles are Wild Patagonia 1 & 2. I think some attention should be drawn to this appalling piece and I’ve already written to Channel 9 to voice my disapproval.
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Huh, I don’t know of ANY climate skeptic who thinks the world is flat or that the Earth is only 6000 years old. I wonder where he gets his information…The Daily Kos perhaps?
Here it is. The best of the nonsense comes near the end of part2:
http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/wild-patagonia-part-1/xqxzlms?src=FLPl%253aposterframe%253atitleBar%255elink%253auuids&from=en-AU
Hey! pigs are clean animals, and certainly look cleaner than Harrison.
I suppose they may lay in mud to cool themselves, since they have little hair.
And they root in the dirt to dig up roots to eat.
Plus tIIRC hey defacate in one corner of their pen, genetically potty trained. 🙂
jeremyp99 says:
From the look of the feller, the pig won. He’s a mess.
That reminds me of what a student who took one of Lewandowski’s classes wrote:
“Have a bath, you grub.” LOL!
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In addition they could upload it to TheWayBackMachine (http://archive.org/web/web.php).
jaffa says:
April 28, 2014 at 5:23 am
He even looks dishonest.
He looks like Ted
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2002407_2002427_2002426,00.html
“…and this is all due to AGW…”
Not even a minority view among glaciologists–more like a flat earth view. See Motyka, et al:
http://www.researchgate.net/…Glacier_Bay…/9c960527a8a69b54bd.pd
–AGF
Damn it. Google: Motyka Glacier Bay. –AGF
TheLastDemocrat says:
April 28, 2014 at 6:29 am
Evolution is happening now? What animals have we added to the zoo in my lifetime?
Evolution is a rate of change thing. The rates of change are fastest in critters that reproduce the most frequently. Which is why you don’t see them in a zoo that often. You might want to grab a microscope.
And of course we come to the age old question – how different from a dog is a wolf? What is a species?
When I hear that a BILLION a day is being spent on “climate research”, I cannot help but wonder how on earth this inconceivable amount of money is being used. The answer is Harrison’s lifestyle… and it is easy to tell he is not wasting it in haircuts or showers, that’s for sure.
M Simon,
I was going to warn TheLastDemocrat that questioning evolution will get him his turn in the barrel. I had only asked for some examples, since the one big example given was the moth, and there were questions about the methodology. But…
…Big misteak.
Greg says:
April 28, 2014 at 8:27 am
“Apparently he hasn’t read that the consensus is that quantum mechanics has no significant impact on the macro-scale world ”
You are mistaken. Heisenburg principal does apply to climatology:
The greater your uncertainty of the energy of the climate system, the more certain you can be of your position.
This was clearly stated to be the case in AR5 SPM.
LULZ and ROTFLMAO
what a nasty unpleasant little man, name calling from his sheltered workshop
If the Harrison has the science on his side (as warmies so often claim), then why is it so difficult for him to debate sceptics? It should be easy to articulate an accurately quantified response with appropriate references.
An acceleration in glacial retreat is not surprising given the temperature record over then last 300 years. Harrison then only needs to articulate and quantify clearly the scientific basis for correlating such warming with anthropogenic activity. He might then notice that even the IPCC does not acknowledge that warming in the last 50 years, let alone since the LIA, is “all due to AGW”, nor do they pretend to know exactly how much it will warm in the future.
By making unsupported, unquantified and alarmist claims, Harrison covers himself with mud. If he wants to be treated with respect as a scientist, he should present like a scientist and leave the muck-raking to others.
NikFromNYC alerted us to:
Stephan.Harrison@exeter.ac.uk
“Dr Harrison also has research interests in the philosophy of physical geography. He has written on the ontology of quantum theory as an argument against realist philosophy in geography, and argued for the identification of emergent properties in landscapes as an alternative to the reductionist model-building paradigm.”
If it were for a cooking show, you would call it ‘word salad’.
According to his University biography ….
Dr Stephan Harrison is …..
Associate Professor of Quaternary Science
An invited member of the Environmental Research Group and the Climate Research Group of the Institute of Actuaries.
An invited member of the Carbon Counting Group, an international group of economists, scientists, architects, politicians and environmental activists working in the field of mitigation and adaption for climate change.
An invited member of the Climate Justice Programme
An expert witness for the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide looking at the impact of mining on mountain glaciers in the Chilean Andes, and specifically the Pascua Lama mine.
An invited member of the Science Media Centre
An invited member of the Environmental Research Group of the Emergency Planning Society.
Since 2005 he has given 19 invited papers and 4 keynote speeches at international and national conferences and workshops.
He has given invited keynote talks at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC; the 2005 Lloyd’s Risk Lecture and invited talks at the universities of Trondheim and Vienna.
He has reviewed manuscripts for 26 journals and grant applications for NERC and NSF.
More here:
https://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Stephan_Harrison
Amazingly he states this at his bio-pages (in the middle of a paragraph about publications) “However, it is unclear whether recent rates of glacier recession in Patagonia are unusual relative to the past few centuries.”….. so this is his “get out”, and he can honestly say that he clearly stated that publically for all to see. The rest of his statements ergo are mere hypotheses.
I have raised pigs, and do not advise anyone to wrestle with them once they weigh more than you do. However at times I have had to get a pig weighing over three hundred pounds into the back of my pick-up truck, to move it to the slaughter house. On one occasion I had three young and very strong men to help me, and in the most casual manner the pig shrugged all four of us aside. Then I remembered an old trick. I put a bucket over the pig’s head, and the pig tried to back away from the bucket. By manipulating the bucket I backed the pig into the truck.
I advise the same approach be used on Alarmists who refuse to debate. The simple fact they refuse to debate is proof they are backing up. Keep them backing up.
@Caleb – You are in luck! Alarmists already have buckets (blinders) on their heads! 😉
I’ve noticed that. Likely it explains the echoing.
Having been involved with setting up a forum/debate for Lord Monckton and some so called AGW experts, I would say that debating with a warmist is very much like shouting to them from a speeding car as they high tail out of town in order to avoid any knowledgable questions from a person who disagrees with them.
Cheers
Roger
http://www.rogerfromnewzealand.wordpress.com
A badly mannered pseudo-academic quite desperate to make it to the headlines that way. His [deficit of] science and professional skill never would have brought him there.
Attn. Exeter University: fire and forget!
Well Dr. Stephan Harrison is evidently an experimentalist if he is studying a specific glacier; heck I would like a grant to go to Patagonia, to find out if the trout can survive in the increasingly acidic rivers; so I presume that Harrison has actually wrestled a pig in mud.
When one does that, it is easy to lose track of which one is the pig.
I used to wrestle pigs; well just their aft legs. After they were pickled in brine for a few days, they had to be wrestled into a large wooden vat of hot water, and scrubbed clean, and then wrestled overhead to hang by the ankle on a hook, and off to the frig to await being sold. Helped pay for me to come to America.
Closest I have ever been to a real live pig, is perhaps 300 meters.
Why debate with anyone who disagrees with you? It’s so much easier to debate only people who agree with you so you can take turns praising each other’s expert opinion and intelligence. It’s also easier to claim a consensus when opposing viewpoints are shut out.
I was correct,
The guy is just scamming the system; even admits it’s just a lot of fun, being on a glacier in Patagonia.
I didn’t see him actually making any measurements of anything.
Wow.
So another educated-at-public-expense (presumably), employed at public expense (presumably) petulant man-child says he will not debate his academic peers (or worse – actual physicists – gasp!).
Guess this is what happens when you search for relevance among hot rocks and petulant (presumably) adolescents attending your classes.
If this is how he behaves after obtaining the sophistication and maturity of an advanced “education”, he must have been a real piece of work before…just saying
‘ Further, if Harrison is worried about disappearing archives, then I urge him and other scientists (even Ellen Mosley-Thompson) to archive their own data, lest it become misplaced. Neither the NOAA archive (ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/) nor Pangaea (www.pangaea.de) contain a single ice core dataset from Patagonia.’
Steve, what makes you think he has any steenking data?
I am a aussie and he did not fool us he might have had more believing in his BS if it was shown on our left wing ABC warming channel
I suppose having a hairy face along with Phd makes you the smartest sob on the planet .